Racing: Kingscliff lays claim to crown

Robert Alners giant chaser usurped Kicking King in Haydocks Betfair Chase, though the Irish champion may have had a legitimate excuse. By Tim Richards

Kingscliff yesterday jumped into the top league at a sun-kissed but frosty Haydock, where his victorious round in the Betfair Chase was steeplechasing personified. The Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Kicking King returned very sore after losing a shoe and coming home in third place.

The 8-1 winner jumped and galloped, calling on all the strength stored in his enormous 17.2 hands frame to outstay Ireland’s Beef Or Salmon by one and a quarter lengths. Kicking King, heralded as the biggest thing to come out of Ireland in recent years, had his reputation dented, though he did not appear to do much wrong in the race.

But after inspecting the horse in the racecourse stables his trainer, Tom Taaffe, discovered that there had been a problem after all. “His left hind shoe twisted on him in the race and a nail pierced his foot,” revealed Taaffe. “I am not offering it